A new survey has found more than a third of Australians believe their devices are tracking them – and they’re right, but there is a way to prevent it.
Research from NordVPN has found 37 per cent of Australians have noticed ads pop up on their devices for producs they had a recent conversation about.
The vast majority saw the ad on their smartphones and the experience left 42 per cent of the respondents feeling tracked or followed.
Dr Dana Rezazadegan, a lecturer in computer science and software engineering at Swinburne University, says she does not believe our devices are eavesdropping, at least not without our consent.
Dr Rezazadegan explained to The New Daily that “cross-device tracking” is a thing, and what it means is that data is being collected from multiple devices.
“If you have your laptop and your mobile and iPad, and they are all connected together, especially if you are sharing the same Apple ID for example, it means that you’re sharing the data between your devices, so it will be easier to be tracked,” she said.
While some are very careful with their devices’ settings and ensure data isn’t being shared that way, data is still being collected if a website collects cookies.
As she explains, with websites collecting data and devices all being linked, this could impact the data on one device.
Are our devices eavesdropping?
Adrianus Warmenhoven, a digital privacy expert at NordVPN, explained ultrasonic cross-device tracking is the reason people think their phones are listening to them.
“That’s when smartphones have apps that are continuously listening to inaudible, high-frequency ultrasonic sounds from the surroundings and gather a lot of information about you — all without your knowledge,” he explained.
“Later, they share this data across other devices.
So, devices can be listening to what we are saying, but they need our consent, meaning an app will first ask to access a device’s microphone, Dr Rezazadegan said.
If you want to record a message on your phone, you will have to turn it on in the app’s settings, either for the device or for a single app. But if you turn it off, your device or an app has no way of tracking you.
However, there are other ways your phone can find out about conversations you’ve been having, Dr Rezazadegan said.
“It also depends on the people around you,” she said.
It’s important to be careful of what settings people in your household have either turned on or disabled, she warned.
If someone in your household has their microphone setting on, it can listen to you and your device understands you’re both in the same location and you are close to that person.
An algorithm might establish that, because two people live together, they might benefit from the same advertisements.
“I know that it happens sometimes and we might think that ‘Oh, I had this conversation with my friend and now my phone is listening to me and that’s why that I see the ads the day after, but it’s not the same’,” Dr Rezazadegan.
“It’s not the actual reason, [which is that] you actually gave the permission somewhere on your apps, or your friends actually gave that permission.”
What can you do?
Obviously, people should check to see what apps on their devices have access to the microphone.
Be particularly wary of apps that ask for permission to access your device’s microphone, but don’t really need it. Photo-editing apps NordVPN cites as one such example. The solution: revoke access to any apps that might request but don’t require the microphone on your device.
Social media companies are constantly updating term and conditions, Dr Rezazadegan said, so it’s worth checking to see if any updates have new ways to track you instead of simply just accepting them.
“You need to be careful each time that you update something to make sure that the settings are still what you actually want,” she said.
Dr Rezazadegan suggests using a VPN while browsing the internet.
“That might be also a good solution, because when you use a VPN it will block your IP,” she said.
If you’re worried about being tracked, turning on Google’s Incognito mode won’t cut it.
Instead NordVPN suggests using a private browser like Tor or DuckDuckGo, so no personal information is shared with marketers and you’re not profiled.
